United Kingdom

    Dozens of demonstrators have staged a friendly protest at a London Sainsbury's local after a gay couple were ejected for holding hands. Thomas Rees and his partner Joshua Bradwell were shopping in the Hackney Road store when a security guard told them that their behaviour was inappropriate. The ensuing backlash led to around 200 people heading to the store on Saturday evening to stage a mass 'kiss in'. To the bigot who complained about my bf & I holdin hands & the security guard at @sainsburys who felt the need to 'talk' to us outsideDozens of men and women joined in, with Mr Bradwell describing the number of people who came along as 'insane'. We were right to be holding hands because when someone questions your behaviour in such a direct manner you can't help but ...

    The government agency responsible for protecting workers from being exploited by their employers has had more than half its funding cut since the Conservatives came to power, according to a new study. Now Labour is demanding that Theresa May put her call for responsible capitalism into practice by restoring the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS) to its former size. According to the government’s website the EAS works with agencies, employers and workers to make sure that employment rights are complied with, particularly for vulnerable workers. But according to the Labour Party, its budget has been cut by 53 per cent in six years, bringing it down to £500,000 a year, and it now has the equivalent of nine full time staff, a cut of 70 per cent over the same per...

    The Foreign Office has warned holidaymakers about the techniques used by hustlers to steal passports after more than 21,000 British tourists lost or had theirs stolen abroad last year. Consulates around the world had to issue more than 30,000 emergency travel documents to globe-trotting Britons stuck overseas. A new passport costs £72.50, while an emergency document is £100. That means Brits spent around £4.5m on replacing their vital travel documents in order to get home. James Freedman, a fraud and crime expert, has joined forces with the FCO which has launched an online campaign called #PassportAware to advise Brits on how to avoid being targeted by thieves. The four most common scams include someone posing as an official or police officer and asking to look at your pas...

    A British school girl thought to have been killed in an airstrike in Syria was fearful of the risks involved in trying to rescue her from Islamic State and could not “make the leap of faith” needed to try to escape, sources have told the Guardian. Kadiza Sultana, who left her home in Bethnal Green, east London, during the half-term break in February 2015 with friends Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, is believed to have died in the terror group’s stronghold of Raqqa earlier this year. Sultana is thought to have become disillusioned with life in Raqqa and had been considering attempting to make her way back to Britain. But sources on Friday said the former Bethnal Green academy student feared the dangers of such a plan failing were too high, and that she would be caught and pu...

    A British woman has astounded doctors with a 100-year-old kidney that is still going strong - and thought to be the world’s oldest successfully transplanted organ. Sue Westhead was in her twenties when she received the organ from her mother, who was 57 at the time, after being diagnosed with kidney disease in 1973. It was estimated to function for no more than two decades before needing a replacement – but the 68-year-old from Wearside has defied medical expectations with it lasting more than double that. Sue Westhead, 68, has astounded doctors because her 100-year-old kidney is still working. Mrs Westhead received the organ from her mother, who was 57 at the time, during her 20s. It was predicted to function for 20 years but has defied medical expectations Mrs Westhead ad...

    Labour has said it will appeal after five new party members won a High Court battle over their legal right to vote in the forthcoming leadership election. The members accused the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) of unlawfully "freezing" them and many others out of the contest between Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith, even though they had "paid their dues". The NEC decided that full members would not be able to vote if they had not had at least six months' continuous membership up to 12 July - the "freeze date". But Mr Justice Hickinbottom ruled that refusing the five the vote "would be unlawful as in breach of contract". The court action affects almost 130,000 Labour supporters who were affected by the freeze. A spokesman for the party said: "The Procedures Committee ...

    A taxi driver has been sentenced to life with a minimum term of 27 years for the murder of Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah. Tanveer Ahmed, 32, travelled from Yorkshire to confront Mr Shah about clips the shopkeeper had posted online which he said "disrespected the Prophet Muhammad". Watching a clip featuring Mr Shah on his phone as he made his way to Glasgow, Ahmed was heard in a message saying: "Listen to this guy. Something needs to be done. It needs nipped in the bud." He pulled out a knife and stabbed the 40-year-old at his store in Glasgow's Shawlands area on 24 March. Ahmed, from Bradford, had pleaded guilty to the murder last month. From Glasgow, Sky News' James Matthews said: "Inside court, a section of the public gallery was filled by supporters of Tanveer Ahmed. "As...

    Three people have suffered serious injuries after an explosion destroyed a terraced house. Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service was called to the property in Curzon Road, Ashton under-Lyne, at around 5am on Tuesday and arrived to find the front and back of the building had collapsed. Incident commander at the scene Alan Ashworth said the number of casualties had risen to "at least 10". He told reporters: "We are concerned for three of these casualties; some of them do have quite severe lacerations and burns." Mr Ashworth said a man, woman and their adult daughter lived at the property - which has been left in ruins following the early-morning blast. "We don't have full details of the casualties, but we now know three people were inside the property at the time of the...

    The collapse of Lehman Brothers and the world economy was the work of Baby Boomers who now want to further mar Millennials' future Alarming new research suggests the UK’s four biggest banks would need to raise another £155bn in fresh capital to withstand a new financial crisis, despite the view of the Bank of England Governor that lenders have an adequate cushion to cope with further turmoil. But what is "capital"? And why should we be concerned? What is a bank’s capital cushion? Capital, broadly, represents shareholders’ money on the balance sheet of a commercial bank. It’s there to absorb losses. If losses are bigger than the capital cushion the bank is bust. So why does that matter for anyone else? If a bank goes bust and it is considered to be important for the wider e...

    Theresa May is said to be planning to allow a new wave of grammar schools for the first time in 20 years. A government source suggested bringing back academic selection in state schools would be part of her agenda to increase social mobility. But lifting the ban on new grammar schools, imposed by Labour in 1998, would be highly controversial and put her on a collision course with the teaching establishment. Mrs May attended a grammar school and recently allowed a new "annex" for one in her Maidenhead constituency, which is permitted within the law. The green light for a new generation of grammars, which now account for just 163 of the 3,000 state secondaries in England, would cheer Tory backbenchers who failed to win David Cameron's backing. Downing Street said: "The Prime...